Some plant people only take gardening and farming to a normal level extent. I, on the other hand, am in way over my head, hook, line, and sinker. I go to bed thinking and dreaming of all the projects I want to complete this and in the years to come. I wake up and cannot wait to jump on the computer to learn something new about gardening, soil life, new business, great plants, and new design techniques.
Weather and climate trends have been leaning towards drought and heat, so I have been bulking up on xeriscape, water wise, drought & heat tolerant plant materials to work with and recommend to my clients for their landscape project needs this season.
I've also found that good planning begins with good record keeping. Keeping good records is extremely beneficial for reference and planning future gardens. Soon it will be time to get those veg seeds planted and germinating indoors for a jump start to the season.
Seedlings need light so don't rely on just window sill light to get them going vigorously. There are plant lights now available inexpensively that can efficiently mimic the suns rays, giving your babies what they need to continue growing. Crops that can be sown and grown now are the salad and mixed greens. These do well in cooler temps.
I grew heirloom gourmet salad mixture greens all winter outdoors last year in the flower bed surrounding my home. They provided tasty food and beautiful color in a season when there is not much going on color wise. I sowed them in recycled containers and directly into the ground. Both did amazingly well and have re-seeded much of the mixture, and are still growing strong now.
Get your garden ready to plant as early as possible so that you have a fighting chance of actually harvesting some food before the heat and drought start messing with the veggie plants natural reaction to heat of non production. Temps above 80-90 are going to slow down flowering and production of many food crops. Mulching generously with an organic material helps moderate soil temps and moisture levels so be sure and incorporate into your garden as much as possible.
Cardboard is a great way to smother weeds also. I lay this in the beds and cover with straw or mulch to keep the soil cool and moist as possible in between irrigation. Keep the soil covered. Use cover crops, which are plants grown to keep soil covered and add humus when turned in at the correct time in a gardens cycle. You can grow cover crops during every season in all empty beds in between food crop rotations.
Rotations, do this! It confuses the bad, crop eating bugs that we love to hate. Rotation is the act of moving certain types of plants to different areas of the garden to discourage plant disease and pest population infestations. If you haven't done this in your own veggie garden, you really should try it. It's been shown to help substantially Gardening sustainably is all about conserving and saving steps resource and labor.
List of things we can do now
- Clean out beds, remove brown plant debris, leaves, sticks, vines
- Apply compost to root zone trees, shrubs, garden beds
- Mulch with fresh layer of hardwood mulch (really makes things look nice)
- prune ornamental and shade trees for optimal health and shape
- plant bulbs, we still have a little time for a spring show
- have winter/spring color added to entryway, flower beds and containers. Plants used now are pansy and kale from Spencer's Orchard, Harrah, OK.
- Lawn de-thatched or power raked of dead plant debris sticks leaves
- Leaf piles removal
- Veg Garden construction
- Ornamental Landscape Bed Construction, for flower bed, shade tree, mixed border, walkways, entryway, mailbox, canceling privacy plantings
- Raised veggie bed construction
- Fire pit construction for outdoor living or patio area
Happy Green Blessings
Kim
Organic Green Witch who heals
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